A Mother's Tale of Accompanying Her Son to a Job Fair, Witnessing the Growing Difficulty of Finding Work

A job fair has become a new beacon of hope for many job seekers. One such individual is Egi, a resident of Petukangan, Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta, who attended the Jakarta Selatan Career Fest & Bazaar 2026 with his mother to search for new job opportunities. The 27-year-old said he has experience in various sectors, including the retail industry. “I’m into marketing, I also have experience in restaurants, marketing as well, things like that. Anything really,” he told CNBC Indonesia on Wednesday (8/7/2026). Egi recounted his experience working at several companies, ranging from XXI, Boots, to Sport Station, specifically for the Liverpool club. He believes this experience serves as a foundation for competing in the job market again. “It’s quite varied, but from XXI onwards I moved into retail. At one point I was at Sport Station Liverpool. Yes, selling jerseys and Liverpool merchandise, things like that,” he said. Egi admitted that the challenge of finding a job is now much tougher. Aside from having to compete with new graduates, he still encounters companies that impose age limits in their recruitment processes. “At my age, the competition is with fresh graduates. Because companies now, I mean, most of them prefer to accept fresh graduates. Back when I had just graduated, they were looking for experienced people. But now that I have experience, it’s the other way around, Ma’am, they want fresh graduates, the young ones.” Meanwhile, his mother, Rianti Siarafaris, said she deliberately accompanied her youngest son to the job fair. For her, finding a job nowadays is far more difficult than when she was of productive age. “Oh, it’s harder now, it used to be easy. It was easier back then. When I was young, finding work was easy. Now, it’s like this, you get a six-month or one-year contract. In my day, there was no such thing,” Rianti said. Rianti also assessed that the current employment system is vastly different. According to her, workers today are mostly faced with contract systems, making job security much more limited compared to the past. “It was long-term. Unless we resigned from the company, we wouldn’t be dismissed. Now, there are six-month contracts, one-year contracts, three-month contracts, depending on the company,” she said. The atmosphere at the Jakarta Selatan Career Fest & Bazaar 2026 saw long queues in front of company booths recruiting for various positions. Some attendees queued directly at their preferred companies, while others walked around seeking information on vacancies matching their educational background or work experience. One job seeker named Akhi said he came with the hope of securing a job amidst increasingly fierce competition. He noted that the high number of applicants actually motivates him to keep trying. “At a job fair like this, there are bound to be many competitors, so we just have to stay enthusiastic about finding work,” Akhi Yunanto told CNBC Indonesia. He said he had already applied to several companies present at the fair. However, many companies no longer accept physical application documents, as most of the registration process has shifted to digital platforms. “I’ve applied to several companies, most are no longer accepting physical documents, but applicants are asked to scan a barcode and fill in their data there,” Akhi said. The job fair featured dozens of companies from various sectors offering a range of positions. In addition to on-site recruitment, the organisers also provided online registration services through the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government’s career portal, which runs until 15 July 2026. The organisers also ensured that the event could be attended free of charge by the public, including persons with disabilities, as part of efforts to broaden access to job opportunities amidst the high public interest in seeking employment.